Idea to website and beyond

[BonkingRabbit]

Hi

Looking for advice on the creation of a new website. Have an idea of going down the free dating website route. Now I am aware that these are 10 a penny at the moment but I am hoping to attract traffic by adding a gimmick and perhaps a mechandising side to it. Have done some research and I know some basics on website design however not enough(i think) to create what I want to create.

Particularly in the area of SEO, I have read a lot of articles and seemingly once you are adept in this area you can push your website up the search engine rankings.

I plan as well as having the website to make use of all social media in promoting and advertising the website, facebook, twitter etc.

Partially it will be a learning experience that may with some luck and hard work take off. I am willing to "throw some money" at the idea but that has of course its limits.

Therefore I am looking for some assistance in the creation of the website. What price may we be talking to set up a relatively basic dating website attached to a certain gimmick with a possible mechandising element thrown in(ballpark figure). Secondly how can I exploit SEO to promote my website?

Any feedback, as always, is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
BonkingRabbit

[MadAbout]

I've personally owned and ran two free dating websites in the past and my first comment would be to say dont do it!

However if you're set on the idea, you should be able to get the site put together for less then a couple of £k by using a premade script with a custom theme. Not sure what the gimmick that you mention so I cant say how much this may cost to add in. Still, the cost to build the site will be nothing compared to the cost to make the site popular (not profitable, just popular).

You will need to be on top of your game marketing and SEO wise, the dating site market is absolutely saturated (understatement) and getting decent exposure and rankings for all but the most obscure keywords will be a major challenge.

When you say you have money to throw at it, you will need a lot if you want the site to gain traction, otherwise it will most likely potter along getting a few members here and there but never enough to pull in any significant revenue.

If your gimmick is good you may get a break virally, but it would have to be something pretty special.

For what its worth, neither of my dating sites ever made money, or even got close to making money, even with a fairly healthy userbase, just some food or thought.

[edmondscommerce]

The key here will be going for a niche

not just dating, but :

soul-mate-stamp-collectors.co.uk

Its much easier to rank for a long tail (look it up) phrase than it is for something general such as "dating"

[abpublish]

I can recommend OSdate. It is open source, works very well and can be set up with very little coding knowledge.

However, the problem is not setting up the site nor the SEO. The problem is encouraging people to join in the early days when you have very few members. You can be on page 1 of Google for "Online Dating" but if they find your site and a search for a match in their area yields few or no results, they will leave your site immediately.

[nitro23456]

I can help with the SEO when you get to that point in time.

[blloyd]

Maybe this is all just a covert attempt at getting signups to the BonkingRabbit dating website...? :D

[BonkingRabbit]

Maybe this is all just a covert attempt at getting signups to the BonkingRabbit dating website...? :D

And it worked, 4 new people signed up today. Keeps going like this, I'll be rich!!! ;)

[Mike George]

Good luck with this BR, I've thought about it but when you look at the amount of advertising the big sites do I couldn't see a way to build up the membership in the early days.

I like the idea of a "specialist" site - not sure about stamp collectors though. There's already one for uniforms.

[edmondscommerce]

Yeah stamp collectors was just to illustrate my point

[blloyd]

not sure about stamp collectors though.

I'm sure stamp collectors need some loving too though ;)

[Mike George]

Well yes, maybe it's not a bad idea!

[confusedone]

I'm sure stamp collectors need some loving too though ;)
chuckled a bit here..........

[huddle]

I build websites for people. Generally they all start off wanting something huge and after a lot of discussion end up with something more contained. Not because the original idea wasn't great but because I talk through with them the real possibilities for making money with a site.

I'd suggest rather than spending 1000's on a website you spend up to £500 and get something into the market. Then test the market to see if you are getting the response you'd hoped for. I suspect like a previous poster mentioned it's a hard market to make money in.

As for the SEO stuff, it's not as complicated as it might seem. You just need the right approach from the outset when writing the pages and a little knowledge about key word density and placing.

[BonkingRabbit]

All

Thanks for all the feedback so far. I guess whether its a site costing 10,000 or 1,000, the main issue is generating traffic. The idea to have sort of gimmick attached to the site with a possible merchandising element is for me making it stand out from the rest of the millions of free dating websites.

Furthermore I plan to exhaust efforts in generating traffic on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. I guess its just a question of it taking off.

I have seen various articles, 1 in particular regarding plentyoffish.com and it can be just a question of right place/right time.

I consider this not only a business idea but in part an experiment. I am prepared to put some money into it, with the possibility of getting absolutely nothing in return apart from a lesson learnt but I guess a lesson worth learning.

Therefore I am interested in someone who can possibly design the website for me at a very reasonable price.

Keep the advice coming, much appreciated.
BonkingRabbit

[sarah844]

How about floatmyboat.com for canal boat lovers, it has a big following so i've heard :D

[MagnifyB]

My advice to you would be -
RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH!
Find your USP
Only when you have done plenty of research, have business and marketing plans, budget forecasts, and a clear budget should you commission a website. Don't go for a template £500 site. If you seriously want to try and get into the online marketing game you will need a top notch site with very strong branding that you can add more to at a later date. Don't start off too big.....grow it slowly over a couple of years.

My best guess of investment needed for you to achieve any slice of the online dating game will run into many £1000's of pounds.